FLINT, Michigan -- Mayor Don Williamson's administration again is being accused of using city parks workers for the mayor's personal benefit.

Two city parks workers said that they and other workers mowed the grass, cleared debris and pulled weeds for three hours in late August on property that is serving as new headquarters for Williamson's gubernatorial campaign.

Parks workers Tony Cole and Fred Snowden said the cleanup of Williamson's property and an adjacent parking lot was included in two days they and other workers spend tidying up a quarter-mile of Glenwood Avenue from Asylum Street to Chevrolet Avenue.

"It's not cool. We're not getting paid to do that. We're getting paid to help the city," said Snowden.

But Williamson was not apologizing for the cleanup, saying that it's part of the city's plan to improve all of Glenwood Avenue.

"We're cleaning up this whole city," Williamson said. "It benefits everyone. I hope it benefits every citizen in the city of Flint."

And, he said, he didn't order any city employee to work on his property.

"I have never, ever asked (parks Director) Bob Cook or anyone who works for the city to clean up my property," Williamson said.

It's not the first time the use of parks employees has been questioned. In 2006, Williamson raised the ire of City Council and others after parks workers spent several days cleaning up a park in advance of a campaign event hosted by Williamson's wife, Patsy Lou, when she ran unsuccessfully for state Senate.

Don Williamson

It led to an investigative hearing by City Council, in which Cole was the star witness for those accusing Williamson of wrongdoing. A Secretary of State investigation eventually cleared Williamson.

Snowden, a temporary employee who has worked for the city for the past two years, said the work on Aug. 26 and 27 at the mayor's property and in an adjacent parking lot diverted time away from maintaining the city's parks.

Within a few weeks of the cleanup, "Williamson for Governor" signs went up at the building, a former union hall that Williamson confirmed is set to be his campaign headquarters for his bid for governor in 2010.

"It makes me mad because (Williamson) knows what he's doing is wrong," said Cole, a supporter of an ongoing effort to recall Williamson.

Career Alliance workers also helped at the site and Cole said more than 15 workers cleaned up along the street.

The building is owned by Williamson's 620 Platt Road LLC, but the adjacent parking lots and large grassy area nearby are not. Williamson purchased the property in April from UAW Local 659 for $52,000, according to county records.

Cook said he was careful to only use unpaid Career Alliance workers on the mayor's property, so no taxpayer money was spent. But Cole and Snowden disagreed, saying they were working on the property, as well as in other areas nearby.

"We were right up against that building," Cole said.

Cook said the mayor did not tell him where to send parks workers, but that he decided to clean up that property as part of the general cleanup of Glenwood Avenue.

Alicia Booker, who leads the Career Alliance, said now that she knows the location is a campaign headquarters, she "doesn't intend to send any additional workers to that site." She said typically their workers just go wherever the city's parks employees work.

She said the program, which trains workers, is designed to "benefit the community."

John Chamberlin, state chair of Michigan Common Cause, said public employees or elected officials should not use government workers to personally benefit an elected official.

"It's a violation of the public trust," Chamberlin said. "It really shouldn't have happened."

Chamberlin said if an elected official ordered city workers to improve his personal property, it could run afoul of the federal Hatch Act, which restricts government employees from working on campaign activities. But he said it's difficult to prove.

Debbie Carswell, financial secretary for UAW Local 659, said they sold the former union hall to Williamson because the hall was not being used much. She said the hall also had problems with mold.

The mayor said his downtown campaign office is too small for the gubernatorial campaign, so he purchased the union building to house campaign workers.